Gunman dead in Indiana shooting spree

Witness: Worker threatened to return with gun

Police surround an entrance to the Nu-Wood Decorative Millwork building.

GOSHEN, Indiana (CNN) --A gunman went on a shooting spree inside a factory at an industrial park here Thursday, killing one co-worker and wounding six others before turning the gun on himself.

"It appears that the shooter died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head," Goshen Police Chief Terry Schollian said. "The individual was lying on what appears to be a shotgun."

He refused to name the gunman or the dead employee.

Schollian said six people -- five men and one woman -- were taken to hospitals, including one man airlifted to Fort Wayne with critical injuries whose condition has since stabilized, Parkview Hospital officials said.

The shooting took place about 2:30 p.m. during a shift change at the Nu-Wood Decorative Millwork plant, which makes vinyl siding, moldings, window panels and other synthetic decorations.

The wife of a plant employee said the gunman had been fired earlier in the day.

A woman told CNN local affiliate WNDU her husband, the plant manager, called authorities about the man earlier in the day after the man had argued with a co-worker. She said the man "threatened to come back and shoot him."

"The cops said beyond putting a restraining order on him, which in this town can take more than a week, they could do nothing," she said.

"And the only way they could come out there is if they were called and said he came back and was physically trying to hurt somebody."

Schollian said there was no record of anyone at the plant contacting the police department until an employee called after the shooting started.

"We have found no information confirming this call being made to the Goshen Police Department," Schollian told a later news conference.

"The 911 center has also questioned their staff and gone through phone monitors and they have found no such call being made."

He said the police would continue to look into the matter.

Schollian said his officers arrived at the industrial park three minutes after the 911 call was received and they and others quickly set up a perimeter around the building. More than 100 police from various agencies were on the scene as the situation unfolded

"Communication was established with an employee who was hiding within an office inside the building," the chief said.

"This employee provided information to the ERT [Emergency Response Team] commander to establish routes of travel for the entry teams."

After using an armored vehicle to approach the building, three SWAT teams entered the building and found the two people dead.

It was initially feared 30 to 35 people may have been shot, but Schollian said that estimate came from a miscommunication early in the incident.

"I think there was some confusion on that through information people were receiving from the [police] scanners," he said.

"When they talk about 30 to 35, that's the total number of employees they have in the building ... not that there was 30 to 35 people injured."

Mayor Allen Kauffman said the industrial park houses several manufacturing plants and employs thousands of people.

Goshen is a city of about 29,000 people 100 miles east of Chicago in northern Indiana. The city is the county seat of Elkhart County.